diff --git a/corpus-server-impl/src/main/java/org/apache/opennlp/corpus_server/impl/UimaUtil.java b/corpus-server-impl/src/main/java/org/apache/opennlp/corpus_server/impl/UimaUtil.java
new file mode 100644
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/corpus-server-impl/src/main/java/org/apache/opennlp/corpus_server/impl/UimaUtil.java
@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.opennlp.corpus_server;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+
+import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
+import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser;
+import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory;
+
+import org.apache.uima.ResourceSpecifierFactory;
+import org.apache.uima.UIMAFramework;
+import org.apache.uima.cas.CAS;
+import org.apache.uima.cas.impl.XmiCasDeserializer;
+import org.apache.uima.resource.ResourceInitializationException;
+import org.apache.uima.resource.metadata.FsIndexDescription;
+import org.apache.uima.resource.metadata.TypePriorities;
+import org.apache.uima.resource.metadata.TypeSystemDescription;
+import org.apache.uima.resource.metadata.impl.FsIndexDescription_impl;
+import org.apache.uima.util.CasCreationUtils;
+import org.apache.uima.util.InvalidXMLException;
+import org.apache.uima.util.XMLInputSource;
+import org.apache.uima.util.XMLParser;
+import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
+
+public class UimaUtil {
+
+  public static TypeSystemDescription createTypeSystemDescription(InputStream in) {
+
+    // Note:
+    // Type System location is not set correctly,
+    // resolving a referenced type system will fail
+
+    XMLInputSource xmlTypeSystemSource = new XMLInputSource(in, new File(""));
+
+    XMLParser xmlParser = UIMAFramework.getXMLParser();
+
+    TypeSystemDescription typeSystemDesciptor;
+
+    try {
+      typeSystemDesciptor = (TypeSystemDescription) xmlParser
+          .parse(xmlTypeSystemSource);
+
+      typeSystemDesciptor.resolveImports();
+    } catch (InvalidXMLException e) {
+      e.printStackTrace();
+      typeSystemDesciptor = null;
+    }
+
+    return typeSystemDesciptor;
+  }
+
+  public static CAS createEmptyCAS(TypeSystemDescription typeSystem) {
+    ResourceSpecifierFactory resourceSpecifierFactory = UIMAFramework
+        .getResourceSpecifierFactory();
+    TypePriorities typePriorities = resourceSpecifierFactory
+        .createTypePriorities();
+
+    FsIndexDescription indexDesciptor = new FsIndexDescription_impl();
+    indexDesciptor.setLabel("TOPIndex");
+    indexDesciptor.setTypeName("uima.cas.TOP");
+    indexDesciptor.setKind(FsIndexDescription.KIND_SORTED);
+
+    CAS cas;
+    try {
+      cas = CasCreationUtils.createCas(typeSystem, typePriorities,
+          new FsIndexDescription[] { indexDesciptor });
+    } catch (ResourceInitializationException e) {
+      e.printStackTrace();
+      cas = null;
+    }
+
+    return cas;
+  }
+
+  public static void deserializeXmiCAS(CAS cas, InputStream xmiIn) throws IOException {
+
+    SAXParserFactory saxParserFactory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
+    saxParserFactory.setValidating(false);
+
+    SAXParser saxParser;
+
+    try {
+      saxParser = saxParserFactory.newSAXParser();
+    } catch (ParserConfigurationException e) {
+      throw new IllegalStateException(
+          "SAXParser should be configured correctly!", e);
+    } catch (SAXException e) {
+      throw new IllegalStateException("SAX error while creating parser!", e);
+    }
+
+    XmiCasDeserializer dezerializer = new XmiCasDeserializer(
+        cas.getTypeSystem());
+
+    try {
+      saxParser.parse(xmiIn, dezerializer.getXmiCasHandler(cas));
+    } catch (SAXException e) {
+      throw new IOException("Invalid XMI input!", e);
+    }
+  }
+}